Since the early 1920s unsubstantiated reports have circulated to the effect
that not only German industrialists, but also Wall Street financiers, had some
role — possibly a substantial role — in the rise of Hitler and Naziism. This
book presents previously unpublished evidence, a great deal from files of the
Nuremburg Military Tribunals, to support this hypothesis. However, the full
impact and suggestiveness of the evidence cannot be found from reading this
volume alone. Two previous books in this series, Wall Street and the
Bolshevik Revolution1and Wall Street and
FDR,2described the roles
of the same firms, and often the same individuals and their fellow directors,
hard at work manipulating and assisting the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in
1917, backing Franklin D. Roosevelt for President in the United States in
1933, as well as aiding the rise of Hitler in pre-war Germany. in brief, this
book is part of a more extensive study of the rise of modern socialism and the
corporate socialists.

This politically active Wall
Street group is more or less the same elitist circle known generally among
Conservatives as the "Liberal Establishment," by liberals (for
instance G. William Domhoff) as "the ruling class,"3 and by
conspiratorial theorists Gary Allen4 and Dan Smoot5 as the
"Insiders." But whatever we call this self-perpetuating elitist
group, it is apparently fundamentally significant in the determination of
world affairs, at a level far behind and above that of the elected
politicians.

The influence and work of this
same group in the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany is the topic of this book.
This is an area of historical research almost totally unexplored by the
academic world. It is an historical minefield for the unwary and the careless
not aware of the intricacies of research procedures. The Soviets have long
accused Wall Street bankers of backing international fascism, but their own
record of historical accuracy hardly lends their accusations much credence in
the West, and they do not of course criticize support of their own brand of
fascism.

This author falls into a
different camp. Previously accused of being overly critical of Sovietism and
domestic socialism, while ignoring Wall Street and the rise of Hitler, this
book hopefully will redress an assumed and quite inaccurate philosophical
imbalance and emphasize the real point at issue: Whatever you call the
collectivist system — Soviet socialism, New Deal socialism, corporate
socialism, or National socialism — it is the average citizen, the guy in the
street, that ultimately loses out to the boys running the operation at the
top. Each system in its own way is a system of plunder, an organizational
device to get everyone living (or attempting to live) at the expense of
everyone else, while the elitist leaders, the rulers and the politicians,
scalp the cream off the top.

The role of this American
power elite in the rise of Hitler should also be viewed in conjunction with a
little-known aspect of Hitlerism only now being explored: the mystical origins
of Naziism, and its relations with the Thule Society and with other
conspiratorial groups. This author is no expert on occultism or conspiracy,
but it is obvious that the mystical origins, the neo-pagan historical roots of
Naziism, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Thule Society, are relatively unknown
areas yet to be explored by technically competent researchers. Some research
is already recorded in French; probably the best introduction in English is a
translation of Hitler et la Tradition Cathare by Jean Michel Angebert.6

Angebert reveals the 1933
crusade of Schutzstaffel member Otto Rahn in search of the Holy Grail,
which was supposedly located in the Cathar stronghold in Southern France. The
early Nazi hierarchy (Hitler and Himmler, as well as Rudolph Hess and
Rosenberg) was steeped in a neo-pagan theology, in part associated with the
Thule Society, whose ideals were close to those of the Bavarian Illuminati.
This was a submerged driving force behind Naziism, with a powerful mystical
hold over the hard-core S.S. faithful. Our contemporary establishment
historians barely mention, let alone explore, these occult origins;
consequently, they miss an element equally as important as the financial
origins of National Socialism.

In 1950 James Stewart Martin
published a very readable book, All Honorable Men7describing his
experiences as Chief of the Economic Warfare Section of the Department of
Justice investigating the structure of Nazi industry. Martin asserts that
American and British businessmen got themselves appointed to key positions
in this post-war investigation to divert, stifle and muffle investigation of
Nazi industrialists and so keep hidden their own involvement. One British
officer was sentenced by court martial to two years in jail for protecting a
Nazi, and several American officials were removed from
their positions. Why would American and British businessmen want to protect
Nazi businessmen? In public they argued that these were merely German
businessmen who had nothing to do with the Nazi regime and were innocent of
complicity in Nazi conspiracies. Martin does not explore this explanation in
depth, but he is obviously unhappy and skeptical about it. The evidence
suggests there was a concerted effort not only to protect Nazi businessmen,
but also to protect the collaborating elements from American and British
business.

The German businessmen could
have disclosed a lot of uncomfortable facts: In return for protection, they
told very little. It is undoubtedly not coincidental that the Hitler
industrialists on trial at Nuremburg received less than a slap on the wrist.
We raise the question of whether the Nuremburg trials should not have been
held in Washington — with a few prominent U.S. businessmen as well as Nazi
businessmen in the dock!

Two extracts from contemporary
sources will introduce and suggest the theme to be expanded. The first extract
is from Roosevelt's own files. The U.S. Ambassador in Germany, William Dodd,
wrote FDR from Berlin on October 19, 1936 (three years after Hitler came to
power), concerning American industrialists and their aid to the Nazis:

Much as I believe in peace
as our best policy, I cannot avoid the fears which Wilson emphasized more
than once in conversations with me, August 15, 1915 and later: the breakdown
of democracy in all Europe will be a disaster to the people. But what can
you do? At the present moment more than a hundred American corporations have
subsidiaries here or cooperative understandings. The DuPonts have three
allies in Germany that are aiding in the armament business. Their chief ally
is the I. G. Farben Company, a part of the Government which gives 200,000
marks a year to one propaganda organization operating on American opinion.
Standard Oil Company (New York sub-company) sent $2,000,000 here in December
1933 and has made $500,000 a year helping Germans make Ersatz gas for war
purposes; but Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings out of the
country except in goods. They do little of this, report their earnings at
home, but do not explain the facts. The International Harvester Company
president told me their business here rose 33% a year (arms manufacture, I
believe), but they could take nothing out. Even our airplanes people have
secret arrangement with Krupps. General Motor Company and Ford
do enormous businesses/sic] here through their subsidiaries and take no
profits out. I mention these facts because they complicate things
and add to war dangers.8

Second, a quote from the diary of the same
U.S. Ambassador in Germany. The reader should bear in mind that a
representative of the cited Vacuum Oil Company — as well as representatives
of other Nazi, supporting American firms — was appointed to the post-war
Control Commission to de-Nazify the Nazis:

January 25. Thursday. Our
Commercial Attache brought Dr. Engelbrecht, chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company
in Hamburg, to see me. Engelbrecht repeated what he had said a year ago:
"The Standard Oil Company of New York, the parent company of the Vacuum,
has spent 10,000,000 marks in Germany trying to find oil resources and
building a great refinery near the Hamburg harbor." Engelbrecht is still
boring wells and finding a good deal of crude oil in the Hanover region, but
he had no hope of great deposits. He hopes Dr. Schacht will subsidize his
company as he does some German companies that have found no crude oil. The
Vacuum spends all its earnings here, employs 1,000 men and never sends any of
its money home. I could give him no
encouragement.9

And further:

These men were hardly out of
the building before the lawyer came in again to report his difficulties. I
could not do anything. I asked him, however: Why did the Standard Oil
Company of New York send $1,000,000 over here in December, 1933, to aid the
Germans in making gasoline from soft coal for war emergencies? Why do the
International Harvester people continue to manufacture in Germany when their
company gets nothing out of the country and when it has failed to collect
its war losses? He saw my point and agreed that it looked foolish and that
it only means greater losses if another war breaks loose.10

The alliance between Nazi
political power and American "Big Business" may well have looked
foolish to Ambassador Dodd and the American attorney he
questioned. In practice, of course, "Big Business" is anything but
foolish when it comes to promoting its own self-interest. Investment in Nazi
Germany (along with similar investments in the Soviet Union) was a reflection
of higher policies, with much more than immediate profit at stake, even though
profits could not be repatriated. To trace these "higher policies"
one has to penetrate the financial control of multinational corporations,
because those who control the flow of finance ultimately control the
day-to-day policies.

Carroll Quigley11 has shown
that the apex of this international financial control system before World War
II was the Bank for International Settlements, with representatives from the
international banking firms of Europe and the United States, in an arrangement
that continued throughout World War II. During the Nazi period, Germany's
representative at the Bank for International Settlements was Hitler's
financial genius and president of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley
Schacht.

Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht

Wall Street involvement with
Hitler's Germany highlights two Germans with Wall Street connections — Hjalmar Schacht and "Putzi"
Hanfstaengl. The latter was a friend of
Hitler and Roosevelt who played a suspiciously prominent role in the incident
that brought Hitler to the peak of dictatorial power — the Reichstag fire of
1933.12

The early history of Hjalmar
Schacht, and in particular his role in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917, was described in my earlier book, Wall Street and the
Bolshevik Revolution. The elder Schacht had worked at the Berlin office of
the Equitable Trust Company of New York in the early twentieth century.
Hjalmar was born in Germany rather than New York only by the accident of his
mother's illness, which required the family to return to Germany. Brother
William Schacht was an American-born citizen. To record his American origins,
Hjalmar's middle names were designated "Horace Greeley" after the
well-know Democrat politician. Consequently, Hjalmar spoke fluent English and
the post-war interrogation of Schacht in Project Dustbin was conducted in both
German and English. The point to be made is that the Schacht family had its
origins in New York, worked for the prominent Wall Street financial house of
Equitable Trust (which was controlled by the Morgan firm), and throughout his
life Hjalmar retained these Wall Street connections.13 Newspapers and
contemporary sources record repeated visits with Owen Young of General
Electric; Farish, chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey; and their banking
counterparts. In brief, Schacht was a member of the international financial
elite that wields its power behind the scenes through the political apparatus
of a nation. He is a key link between the Wall Street elite and Hitler's inner
circle.

This book is divided into two
major parts. Part One records the buildup of German cartels through the Dawes
and Young Plans in the 1920s. These cartels were the major supporters of
Hitler and Naziism and were directly responsible for bringing the Nazis to
power in 1933. The roles of American I. G. Farben, General Electric, Standard
Oil of New Jersey, Ford, and other U.S. firms is outlined. Part Two presents
the known documentary evidence on the financing of Hitler, complete with
photographic reproduction of the bank transfer slips used to transfer funds
from Farben, General Electric, and other firms to Hitler, through Hjalmar
Horace Greeley Schacht.

6Published in English as The Occult and the Third Reich, (The mystical
origins of Naziism and the search for the Holy Grail), (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1974). See also Reginald H. Phelps, " 'Before Hitler
Came:' Thule Society and Germanen Orden" in the Journal of Modern
History, September 1968, No. 3.